Rap and Rebellion

I have been listening to rap lately. There is something about an autotuned voice and way too much bass that is appealing to my eardrums right now. With lyrics like, "I don't need drugs, I got the most high," who needs to listen to anything else? Now don't get me wrong, I love a good country song just as much as the next Central Valley kid, but recently my musical taste has been stretched and challenged by a sweet young man who goes by the name Lecrae as well as his bff Sho Baraka.

In one of Lecrae's songs his rhymes go something like this, "You're just a conformist if you're drunk and naked, and driving around on a motorcycle, smoking cigarettes and breaking commandments and getting pregnant out of wedlock. Everyone's done that! That's so tired. If you really want to be a rebel, read your Bible, because no one's doing that. That's rebellion. That's the only rebellion left!"

I see a lot of young people trying to find their niche, trying to fit it, trying to be accepted and most of the time students find where they fit, where they belong. Whether it be in music, sports, academics, friends, family, church, whatever it may be, they find where they belong. But some people never find home, never find where they belong so they resort to acting out to being a rebel in order to make someone think they are cool because they are pushing on the status quo, they are crossing the line as far as they can to make sure someone takes notice of them.

The issue with acting out and looking for rebellious individuality is that everyone is looking in the same place. Students are trying to outdo one another by buying the newest NKOTB tape or having the most expensive acid washed jeans. Trying to outdrink each other, out smoke each other, out cuss, out tat, out non-conform each other. And when everyone is trying to be a non-conformist at the same time all you get is a lot of conformists.

So in a society where rebellion is the norm, where you aren't cool unless you pee your pants, or go party on Saturday, wouldn't the true rebellion be to seek what is true and real?

I join Lecrae in saying, "This ain't how it outta be homie, it's how it gotta be."